Wednesday, March 31, 2010

FamilyMint: A Superior Way to Teach Money Management!

Ah, money. That thorn in our flesh. Some people have a natural, innate accountant nestled in their inner-selves. The rest of us...not so much. Balance that checkbook lately? Sift through that pile of mail/bills lately? Oh, that “root of all evil” just has a hard time staying in spiritual “check” doesn’t it?

With kids we all know that more is caught than taught...which is a bit scary in relation to money. Most of us adults have learned the dangers of over-spending and under-budgeting through the School of Hard Knocks (that can sometimes sound like the phone ringing with a debt collector on the other end...) and are a bit bankrupt when it comes to knowing how to change the situation.

Enter the BRILLIANT program from a website called FamilyMint. They recently allowed me to set up our own family “bank” and try their program in exchange for my blog review. This innovative and helpful website ranks as one of the best things I have reviewed all year! It is one of those things that makes you wonder why you never thought of that...at least within the realm of your family and a spreadsheet on the PC.

The people at FamilyMint have gone above and beyond Excel spreadsheets, however...all you have to do is become a member to begin to take advantage of this fantastic family program. What is truly amazing, is that membership is FREE! They are working on a "Pro" version that can be purchased, but that is down the road.

With FamilyMint, you have at your fingertips a ton of motivation for your children to save and many visual pictures that make the abstract things like deposits, savings, and interest much more concrete to your kiddos. Each child is given their own account, which they can set up with an icon to easily login and find their persona. There are options to set up a general bank account or get much more detailed (the real beauty of the program, if you ask me), and designate how a deposit will be split up.

For instance, a $10 deposit can automatically be split into, a 10% designation for tithe, a 15% designation for college, a 15% designation for an item they really want to save for, and the other 60% into a general fund that they can use for whatever. Furthermore, they can select icons to represent their categories, like a horse picture if they are saving for horseback riding lessons, for example. Along with the photo there is a “thermometer” style graph that can show the progress of a savings goal, filling in as the savings increase toward the 100% mark. Pretty cool, eh?

By the way, you the parents are the bankers. No money actually is placed in the Family Mint’s possession. You are the banker, you keep the money in a safe place and dole it out as warranted. Furthermore, as the banker you approve the set up of your child’s account and the various transactions. If they deposit money, it isn’t officially in their account until the banker validates or “clears” it, just like a real bank.

There are several other incentives to offer your child, encouraging them to save. I don’t know if your family gives an allowance, but one of the challenges we face in our home, due to such busy lives, is just remembering to pay it! You would think that our kids wouldn’t let it slip by-- but somehow we all are rather sporadic in our remembering. With FamilyMint, allowance is automatically added, the amount and timing programmed in by you, the banker. Furthermore, you can pay interest to your child (amount set by you, once again) for saving their money, rather than spending. You even have an option of matching their savings if there is something really important you want them to save for, similar to a 401K.

Have I piqued your “interest” yet? If so, please click here and check out this valuable program and start teaching your children responsible money management. Who knows...you might learn a little something along the way, too!

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At the Intersection of Creation and Evolution: A Dream

The alliterating story below is based on a dream I had several years ago. Please contact me for permission to reproduce.

Darkness devours me.

I am enveloped in emptiness.

Are my eyes open or are they closed? I strain against this shroud of night and still see nothing.

What is this place?

An image illuminates in front of me. A large, leafy tree streaks past and vanishes.

It deserts me to the darkness again.

In a moment, more images appear. A rapid succession of snapshots and thoughts clamor before my eyes and mingle in my mind.

I see seedlings. Several supple shoots have emerged before me and then swiftly stream away.

“The first trees on earth were not seedlings”, my mind observes. “They were not created as small insignificant saplings.”

That thought is rapidly replaced with a vision of a man. He’s maybe 30; he is muscular and needs to shave.He fades away.

In his place I see an infant.

A tiny bundle of pink skin upon a soft blanket flickers briefly in my brain.

“Man was created with age,” is the next statement I hear. “Adam did not begin his life as a baby, he began as a grown man.”

The voice seems like my own. The thoughts do not.

Reeling before me now is a blur of rivers, forests, mountains and even layers of the earth. It is like a movie rushing rapidly before my retina.

The soundtrack of this epic is proclaiming a peculiarly plain concept:

“The earth was created with age. Creation and evolution are not in total opposition. There is a reason that science finds the earth to be quite old: it was made that way.”

Thoughts continue to tumble through my mind; pictures parade before me. I listen in amazement to what seems to be puzzlingly profound and yet rather apparent all at once.

“Adam was created as an adult. Trees and plants were made fully grown.”

I suddenly feel quite certain that, if I were to chop down some of the trees that had been spoken into existence, I would find a range of rings running through their trunks.

“The earth was brought to life with age built into it… just like Adam. He did not begin life as an infant. The earth came into being with what it would need to sustain the life that was created. It was old when it was young. The world wasmade with maturity; it was also produced with purpose.”

These thoughts are thrilling. Why had I not seen this before? It seems so simple. Obtusely obvious. Had others not observed this correlation? If they had, why wasn’t it being candidly conveyed?

In the span of thirty seconds I have been ravaged by a radical revelation. I feel the weight of its worth resting on me; it is tantamount to tangible.

I am neither a theologian nor am I a scientist. I don’t claim that the ethics of evolution are completely compatible with the Bible’s account of creation. But certainly Science can come concurrent to creation and affirm our faith with facts.

Of course, the Omnipotent Originator of the Universe is exceedingly elusive to what our mind could ever envision. Above what science could ever extensively elucidate.

Accordingly, creation is confounding too. Each diverse discovery deems it more marvelous to grasp. Many scientists have reluctantly relented to the theory of Intelligent Design.

That’s why, alongside those facts, we also need faith.Lying inexplicably at the intersection of those two essential elements is an exceptional endowment: the intermittent insight of our dreams.

Links to family resources, homeschooling material, healthy living and beautiful music!

Followers

Today's Deep Pondering 2/10/11

"Somehow, we have created a community of respectability in the church...The down-&-out, who flocked to Jesus when he lived on earth, no longer feel welcome. How did Jesus, the only perfect person in history, manage to attract the notoriously imperfect? And what keeps us from following in his steps today?" Philip Yancey

Today's Deep Pondering 1/31/11

"I'm not what I could be. I'm not what I should be. But I'm not what I was." James MacDonald

Today's Deep Pondering 1/16/11

"I bear the Maker’s image, and one of the ways that plays out is that I delight in making. I’ve loved to draw for as long as I can remember. From the moment I picked up the guitar I wasn’t content to play another guy’s songs–I wanted to sing my own. Ever since I was a kid I wanted to write stories. I love stories, and thrill to an imagination on fire. I sat down in front of the blank page and let my imagination run wild, did my best to tell a story I would want to be told. If a reader is willing to trust me with a little of his or her imagination, I want to light it up with truth, and beauty, and goodness."

Andrew Peterson, author of The Wingfeather Saga. A great expression of why I write, as well!

Today's Deep Pondering 12/5/10

"In our present world, people devote too much time on personal gain instead of productive change such as evangelism, cures to diseases, protecting the innocent and punishing the wicked, etc. And through Christ's continuous trials that He places in our lives He gives us the chance to rise to the occasion and to glorify the One Who's forgiveness reaches as far as the east is from the west. the One who maintains the equilibrium of every cosmic and atomic force in the universe. The One who determined how you would be molded in His image not only in the womb, but in the predestined things that He will give and take away from us so that we might bring glory to the Creator and not the creation. And the One Who will judge the living and the dead at the returning of His kingdom. In this knowledge we must not live for tomorrow, but for eternity." Adam Christopher Martin, class of '09

Today's Deep Pondering 12/4/10

"The best way to drive out a bad worldview is by offering a good one, and Christians need to move beyond criticizing culture to creating culture." Nancy Pearcey

Today's Deep Pondering 11/28/10

"Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that flame, it will burn very briefly." Stephen R. Covey

Today's Deep Pondering 10/5/10

"Why do we make so much of what won't endure?"Bret Rogers

Today's Deep Pondering 10/4/10

"The sovereign activity of God oversees our lives and every event in them to fulfill HIS purpose of overwhelming our mortality with his LIFE." Jason Lee

Today's Deep Pondering 8/15/10

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. A man who has nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance at being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." John Stuart Mill

Today's Deep Pondering 6/30/10

"Bitterness robs us of joy and peace. It hijacks us, taking us places we never wanted to go, doing things we never wanted to do, and making us people we never wanted to be."Bill Elliff

Today's Deep Pondering 6/30/10

"To forgive is to set the prisoner free, and then discover the prisoner was you."Unknown

Today's Deep Pondering 6/25/10

"Man weighs your actions but God weighs your intentions."

Thomas A. Kempis

Today's Deep Pondering 6/10/10

"No Creature that deserved redemption would need to be redeemed." C.S. Lewis

Today's Deep Pondering 6/8/10

"Our grand business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand." Thomas Carlyle

Today's Deep Pondering 5/28/10

"To be holy, God does not conform to a standard--He is the standard." A.W. Tozer

Today's Deep Pondering 5/21/10

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."Jim Elliot

Today's Deep Pondering 5/21/10

"Perfection is being, not doing; it is not to effect an act but to achieve a character."Fulton J. Sheen

Today's Deep Pondering 5/21/10

"All moral obligation resolves itself into the obligation of conformity to the will of God."Charles Hodge

Today's Deep Pondering 4/13/10

We the people are the rightful masters of both congress and the courts, not to overthrow the constitution, but to overthrow men who pervert the constitution."

- Abraham Lincoln

Today's Deep Pondering 4/2/10

"Don't be afraid to embrace whimsy...the idea that life could be magical."Bob Goff

Today's Deep Pondering 12/18/09

"Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obsures your sense of God, or takes away the relish of spiritual things; in short whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind--that thing is sin to you."Susannah Wesley

Today's Deep Pondering 12/9/2009

"To be crucified means, first, the man on the cross is facing only one direction; second, he is not going back; and third, he has no further plans of his own." A.W. Tozer

Today's Deep Pondering 11/18/09

"The most important thought I ever had was that of my individual responsibility before God."Daniel Webster

Today's Deep Pondering 11/14/09

"People don't stop playing because they grow old, they grow old because they stop playing!"Ziggy Marley

Today's Deep Pondering 11/10/09

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."Anne Frank

Today's Deep Pondering: 11/04/09

"Our situation was truly desperate. We had no hope...no possibility of overcoming sin's dominion on our own. No power to initiate our own salvation. No potential of ever having a right relationship with God. We could not do anything to change or improve our situation. If our sinful condition had made us only sick or weak, we might have entertained hopes of getting better. But we weren't sick; we were dead. Someone had to infuse life into us. Someone did."From Seeking Him 12-Week Study by Nancy Leigh DeMoss and Tim Grissom

Today's Deep Pondering: 10/22/09

"God always builds on ruins."M. Judy

Today's Deep Pondering: 10/13/09

"Pray you grow up before you grow old."Unknown

Today's Deep Pondering: 10/08/09

"Nobody can always have devout feelings; and even if we could, feelings are not what God principally cares about. Christian love, either toward God or toward man, is an affair of the will. But the great thing to remember is that, though our feelings come and go, his love for us does not."C.S. Lewis

Today's Deep Pondering: 9/16/09

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it...Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure...Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."Helen Keller

Today's Deep Pondering: 9/1/09

"Nothing can enter heaven which is not real; nothing erroneous, mistaken, conceited, hollow, professional, pretentious, [or] insubstantial, can be smuggled through the gates. Only truth can dwell with the God of truth." C.H. Spurgeon

Today's Deep Pondering: 8/25/09

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength. --Corrie Ten Boom

Today's Deep Pondering 8/23/09

The man who lives by himself and for himself is apt to be corrupted by the company he keeps.C.H. Parkhurst

Today's Deep Pondering: 8/11/09

"Despair is such a waste of time when there is joy, and lack of faith is such a waste of time when there is God." Larry Burner

Today's Deep Pondering: 8/7/09

No man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when tomorrow's burden is added to the burden of today that the weight is more than a man can bear. Never load yourself so. If you find yourself so loaded, at least remember this: it is your own doing, not God's. He begs you to leave the future to him, and mind the present.George MacDonald

Today's Deep Pondering: 8/6/09

"If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you [don't] like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself." Augustine of Hippo

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Easy, Fabulous Toffee

Here's a recipe that will make you fat. Sorry, but, it is so good, you really don't want to share it. You want to secretly eat the whole thing! Thankfully it is VERY easy to make. You will make it so much, once you try it, you'll know the recipe by heart when someone asks for it. And they will... if you let them have some and you don't keep it all for yourself!Plain or honey graham crackers.2 sticks of real butter (may substitute up to one stick with margarine, if you're into that).1 C brown sugar, packed. I prefer dark but both work fine.1 package semi-sweet choc. chipsPreheat oven to 350. Line a jelly roll pan with graham crackers, cut to fit so that it is wall to wall grahams! Melt butter in sauce pan, add brown sugar. Turn up heat, stirring occasionally, while mixture comes to a boil. Dark brown sugar can burn a bit easier, FYI. Let boil together, still stirring only occasionally, keeping heat up pretty high. The mixture should look foamy and combined in about three minutes. Pour over the graham crackers and spread around with the back of a spoon to cover. Place pan in over and cook for 10 minutes.Remove and pour the package of chocolate chips over the top, fairly evenly. Allow to sit for about 5 minutes. Chips will look shiny, meaning they are melted. Spread them around evenly with spatula. Place entire pan in fridge and let harden (about 30 minutes). Cut or break into pieces. For crunchiest toffee, keep in fridge and take out before serving.Some variations: Add cup of chopped walnuts or pecans to butter mixture before you pour over grahams. Or, after you spread the melted chips on top, sprinkle with nuts of your choice, toasted almonds are quite tasty! You may also substitute some of the semi-sweet chips for milk chocolate, but they do not spread as well so I don't recommend only using milk chocolate. A pretty variation is to sprinkle a few white chocolate chips randomly on top of the semi-sweet chips that have already been spread around. Let the white chocolate chips melt and use a butter knife to spread the white chips in a zig-zag pattern across the toffee.

Fancy Shmancy Cream Cheese Sandwich

Here's an unbelievably easy yet gourmet tasting sandwich. Eat it with soup or fruit, or serve at a luncheon, either way you will get a bunch of requests to make it again!

Spread one slice of bread with cream cheese, the other with raspberry jam. Place a few slices of smoked turkey between the two and sear in a skillet with a little bit of butter. Be ready to see eyes rolling and hear throats groaning when eveyone takes a bite!

I cannot take credit for this delicious combo. My friend Susan had it at one of those "frou-frou" restraunts and copied it at home. Once she made it for me, I was hooked!

My sweetheart and me!

Capuccino Cream Cheese Recipe

Here's a yummy recipe that will turn breakfast bagels from boring to bodacious!1 pkg. Cream Cheese at room temp.1/4 Cup of very strong coffee or one shot of espresso (if you don't care for strong coffee flavor, start with less coffee and taste and add as you mix).1/2- 1 whole cup of powdered sugar (taste and add as you mix)1 tsp. vanilla (optional)Mix well with electric mixer. Store in fridge for up to two weeks. This is simply decadent and is a great item for a brunch. Good spread on banana bread too!

Back "home" in beautiful Vancouver, WA

THE THREE LITTLE WEE-BOOKS. SMALL BOOKS OFFER BIG HELP IN GETTING KIDS TO WRITE!

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that all children find writing therapeutic. For some, writing is a creative outlet that makes sense of all the ideas floating around in their creative noggins. For many others, writing is akin to shock therapy or other primitive forms of institutionalized torture.

In addition, the parents that are trying to teach their children to write…well, that comes with its own set of “therapeutic” effects depending on their prior experience with the craft. Even adults that have a good grasp of the process may struggle with how to systematically teach writing to their children. If only we could figure out how to teach and learn by osmosis, right?

I recently read three “Wee-books” that take the colossal task of teaching children to write and turn it into small doable portions that are easily assimilated. At under $2 a book, these little gems are a good investment in practical writing techniques and ideas.

“What’s a “Wee-book”?” you may ask. A Wee-book is simply a small (or wee) e-book. Just in case you are unfamiliar with this rather new concept in book publishing, e-books are online books that are completely electronic and paperless. They download right onto your computer. Wee-books are shorter, inexpensive books on a variety of subjects of homeschooling interest, brought to you by the folks in-the-know at The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.

Though I had the opportunity to review any three Wee-books of the over 30 that are currently available, I decided to choose three on the subject of writing. I must admit that I am one of those parents that love to write but struggles with how to practically convey what I know to my kids.

Getting to the Root of Writer’s Block by Kim Kautzer was the first of the three Wee-books that I read. As a writer myself, I wanted to know the answer to the plaguing question of writer’s block! Ms. Kautzer presents us with a typical scenario of teacher telling student to “write about anything,” and student staring at blank page having not a clue where to start. Been there, done that, haven’t you?

Well, without giving away the complete answer to where the root of writer’s block lies, let’s just say I learned that it could be summed up in the problem of being a perfectionist. Writing is a craft that takes vulnerability, laying out personal ideas for others to judge. Our human nature wants it to be just right on the first try and to have our efforts loved and not criticized. Unrealistic desires, grant it, but what we all struggle with, nonetheless.

Ms. Kautzer rightly states that, “writing is a process, not an event.” She then breaks down that process into steps that are easily understood, attainable, and will point the instructor in the right direction so they, in turn, can lead the student. From brainstorming to the final draft, Getting to the Root of Writer'sBlock takes you succinctly through the progression.

One thing I would add that Ms. Kautzer didn’t touch on as a cause for writer's block is that our human nature can just be plain lazy. Writing, revising and rewriting can seem like drudgery in some ways, and is not for the “fast food” mentality that plagues kids and parents alike in this day and age. Frankly, there's a shortage of short cuts that one can take to write a good piece of work; we’ll have to be thankful for spell check and grammar suggestions via our PC as tools that help to shorten the process. That said, Ms. Kautzer presents the parent with many good ideas for preventing writer’s block and ways of dealing with it if it rears its ugly head.

With the problem of writer’s block at least tackled, let’s take a leap to an important staple in the career of any student: the essay. Writing Essays, by veteran homeschool author Ruth Beecheck, is the second Wee-book that I would like to look at. With essay writing “entrenched in our schooling system”, getting a handle on writing an essay is an important task.

The four types of essays a student needs to learn to write are discussed with emphasis on what a college looks for in a good essay as well. Working through your first draft and writing essays for tests are also given some discussion time.

What Ms. Beecheck does a knockout job of in WritingEssays is offering up truly helpful suggestions on ways to write effectively; to a write in a way that the reader can easily follow. She states that, “with good sequence, the thoughts flow smoothly for your reader,” and then suggests some wonderful ways in which to accomplish this, giving concrete examples as she presents different techniques.

Essay writing is a skill every student needs to grasp. It must begin at a young age, in small assignments, and build in length and complexity as the child grows. Ms. Beecheck issues this obligation and then gives the teacher superb guidance on how to make excellent essays a reality in their student’s lives.

Finally, for the parent who may read through the two Wee-books I just reviewed and still feel daunted by the task of teaching these skills in an effective way, Writer’s Workshop by Maggie Hogan may provide just the solution to this problem. I must admit that, at first, I was resistant to the idea of putting such a workshop together. Sounded like a lot of effort and stress waiting to happen!

Though anything worthwhile certainly takes some effort, Ms. Hogan shows why such a venture does not need to be stressful. Creating a writer’s workshop is actually forming a writing co-op with some other willing parents. If you follow the suggestions laid out in Writer’s Workshop, the work will be easily and evenly spread out and a successful group can be enjoyed by all (yes, even the kids!).

Ms. Hogan stresses that the ultimate purpose of creating these workshops is not to just end up with polished projects. “If you are more concerned with the finished piece than with the child, you may get a few nicely written works, but your child may have learned little about writing.” Truly, if we make the finished product the goal, the child will fall quickly into the perfectionist mentality that we already discussed as being self-defeating.

However, using the tips and suggestions that have worked for Ms. Hogan for the last ten years, you can feel confident that your efforts will pay off with kids that will actually enjoy the journey of writing (maybe for the first time ever). Writer’sWorkshop will guide your group through the first meeting, how to get organized and what kind of game plan you will walk away with. Then it will take you step-by-step through what a regular meeting should look like right down to what the toddlers are doing to keep busy!

One of my favorite ideas is that of the “author’s chair”. It is considered “the most important element of the workshop”. The author’s chair is a special chair designated for the reading of one’s work. Though it may be a different chair depending on where the meeting is held from week to week, it is a spot set apart when the time comes for kids to share (voluntarily) their work. The chair signifies a time to read, listen politely and offer kind comments or ask a few questions.

The typical meeting is broken down into three steps (with an optional fourth) that are explained in detail with plenty of room to customize according to the needs of your particular group. The ideas presented are not intimidating but, rather, encouraging and tempting to try. With a few other committed families (ages of children can vary widely), you can use the template from Writer’s Workshop to foster an environment of writing that will encourage even the most reluctant writer to give their best effort. Parents are encouraged to give it a try too!

All three of the Wee-books reviewed also include a “Further Resource” section at the end that will allow you to click on and instantly access more material and curriculum that will help you on your writing journey. You can download these Wee-books and many others on a variety of subjects in the online store from The OldSchoolhouse Magazine. Conquer your child's writing fears-- and your own-- or learn something new today! Click here to check it all out without delay:

e-BOOK REVIEW

HomeWork from The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.

Homeschooling families are often single-income families. Yet, what stay-at-home mother hasn’t lamented over her inability to contribute, in some way, to the family income? Most of us have at least day dreamed about a home-based business; whether to supplement what our husband brings home or to allow our families to work alongside one another. HomeWork, an e-book available from The Old SchoolhouseMagazine has collected a wonderful menagerie of stories about homeschooling mothers that have managed to make their Home also a place of Work (thus the clever title!).

The single income dilemma has always clung to me like a pair of pants that were a size too small and uncomfortably tight. If I could just lose a few pounds, if I could just figure out what the right job would be for me, then everything would fit just right. The “if” is what looms in your mind when you are a struggling single income family. What “if” you invest in something and it goes belly-up? What “if” you have a great product but find that it consumes too much time and homeschooling falls by the wayside? What “if” you never give it a try?

HomeWork does a fabulous job of introducing the reader to successful homeschooling families that have taken the leap of faith and begun their own home based business. Some of the stories are of professions that encompass the entire family, others are part time ventures taken on by busy homeschooling mothers. All of the stories are written in a conversational tone in a way that naturally tells the families’ journey.

There are a variety of enterprises explored in this book. From homemade crafts that sell on the internet to running a Bed and Breakfast, there is something for everyone within these pages. The stories combine the ins and outs of that job’s particular quirks with how those things fit into a typical day of school for the family. The reader will learn how these businesses began, what it took to get them going (helpful ideas such as lease financing, marketing, overhead, and how to use the internet), and the stories include where the children fit into the scheme of things as well. Each synopsis shows what it currently takes to keep everything afloat.

Having not read many e-books myself, I was pleased with the effortless reading format of this book. The font was easy on the eyes and the table of contents took you to the stories that interested you most. One great little perk with this e-book is that each family had websites and/or blogs which could be instantly accessed at the end of their story. In many cases, I was able view the products that I just read about. Can’t do that with a paperback!

Furthermore, there are resources at the end of the book to help with bookkeeping, financing and organizing. Many of the obvious questions that would come up when considering such a venture are dealt with in a “Q & A” section as well.

I would highly recommend HomeWork as a very useful tool for most home school families. Even if you know that it is not at all the right time to look into something like this, eventually the thought and/or the opportunity will present itself! Even the independently wealthy get bored, right? (Not that I would know!). The ideas presented in these pages are worth chewing on and exploring. Building a business takes preparation and time. If you plan ahead and read this now, you’ll have a much better idea of what you want to do and how to go about doing it when the time inevitably comes.